Modeling The Detectability Of Exoplanets For The Palomar Extreme Adaptive Optics Palm-3000 System.

Poster I presented at the 218th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Abstract:

In this study, we present the projected capabilities and detection limitations for the PALM-3000 Extreme Adaptive Optics system to directly image super-Jupiter planets around nearby stars. PALM-3000 is the new adaptive optics system for the Palomar 5 m telescope, which employs a 3366 - actuator deformable mirror and is expected to deliver contrast ratios near 107 at 1 arc second from bright stars. The PALM-3000 system will be an upgrade from the current Adaptive Optics system at Palomar and commissioning will begin in the summer of 2011. Planetary and orbital parameters (mass, eccentricity, semi-major axis) were randomly sampled from known distributions, which have been established or extrapolated from radial velocity observations. Parent stars were modeled in accordance with the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and given randomized ages and distances from Earth. Probability for detection was modeled using a Monte-Carlo simulation written in IDL. Projected contrast curves in the H band for PALM-3000 were used as the constraints for planetary detection.